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LIMA, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Three policemen were shot dead on Saturday morning in an ambush by presumed drug traffickers in the Peruvian jungle, the Ministry of the Interior announced.
The attack, which appears to have been an ambush, occurred during a patrol 30 minutes from the Palpampa military base, in the Ayacucho jungle region in southern Peru.
In a video statement, the attackers waited several days in hiding before opening fire on a patrol. Three police were killed and two more were injured. Bottles of water and food were found at three different spots where snipers were hidden.
The dead were confirmed as Marco Antonio Gomez, Edwin Tipe Fernandes and Bermis Samir Torres Bustamante.
The police patrol was part of the Special Anti-Drug Operations Division and was operating in the conflicted Vraem region, where between 18,000-20,000 hectares are given over to illegal coca plantations and to clandestine laboratories to produce cocaine.
On Twitter, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski condemned the attack, writing "Unacceptable loss of three brave policemen in Vraem. While the Armed Forces and National Police of Peru help the population, these killers do not believe in the country."
